George Herbert (1593-1633), the celebrated devotional poet, and his brother Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648), often described as the father of English deism, are rarely considered together. This collection explores connections between the full range of the brothers’ writings and activities, despite the apparent differences both in what they wrote and in how they lived their lives. More specifically, the volume demonstrates that despite these differences, each conceived of their extended republic of letters as militating against a violent and exclusive catholicity; theirs was a communion in which contention (or disputation) served to develop more dynamic forms of comprehensiveness. The literary, philosophical and musical production of the Herbert brothers appears here in its full European context, connected as they were with the Sidney clan and its investment in international Protestantism.
The disciplinary boundaries between poetry, philosophy, politics and theology in modern universities are a stark contrast to the deep interconnectedness of these pursuits in the seventeenth century. Crossing disciplinary and territorial borders, contributors discuss a variety of texts and media, including poetry, musical practices, autobiography, letters, council literature, orations, philosophy, history and nascent religious anthropology, all serving as agents of the circulation and construction of transregionally inspired and collective responses to human conflict and violence. We see as never before the profound connections, face-to-face as well as textual, linking early modern British literary culture with the continent.
George Herbert’s Latin Prose: Orationes et Epistolae offers the first modern translation of the poet and orator’s complete Latin prose. F.E. Hutchinson’s Works of George Herbert included the original Latin orations and letters without translation, accompanied by explanatory notes, the one exception being Herbert’s first oration, originally printed in both Latin and English. A new critical edition is merited for historical as well as literary reasons. Herbert’s oration upon the return of Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham from Spain in 1623 appeared at a pivotal historical moment in Europe. We identify for the first time many of Herbert’s allusions and situate the speech within its classical rhetorical tradition. Herbert’s official Latin letters on behalf of Cambridge University were addressed to the most important political and religious figures of his time in Great Britain, including King James I, George Villiers, Marquis of Buckingham, Secretary of State Robert Naunton, Chancellor Francis Bacon, Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, and Archbishop George Abbot. Herbert’s Latin prose speaks the language of the courtly “world of strife” that his devotional verse sought to forsake.
George Herbert’s Latin Prose is available at $15 (paperback) and $25 (cloth), with postage billed at actual cost for mailing outside the U.S. Please inquire.
Send orders to Sidney Gottlieb, Editor, George Herbert Journal (spgottlieb@aol.com). Payment can be made by check (payable to: George Herbert Journal) sent to him at: Department of Communication, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06514 or via PayPal (spgottlieb@aol.com).
George Herbert’s Latin Verse: “Herbert’s relatively little-known Latin works, the collections Musae Responsoriae, Passio Discerpta, Lucus, and a variety of occasional pieces, reveal a satiric and playful poet that may surprise readers of The Temple. This new translation makes those works fully available to a broad readership. Reflecting a deep understanding of the original Latin text, the work of Freis, Freis and Miller meets the challenge of combining fidelity and clarity. Rich annotations situate the poems in their complex literary, theological, and historical contexts. Like their earlier translation of Memoriae Matris Sacrum, this model of exacting scholarship will serve generations of Herbert readers.”
— James Doelman, Brescia University College, University of Western Ontario
George Herbert’s Latin Verse runs to over 300 pages and contains a detailed introduction setting out the background of these poems; the Latin and English texts on facing pages; three Appendices, including one on “Herbert’s Metrics”; full notes on the poems; and a bibliography. George Herbert’s Latin Verse is available at $20 (paperback) and $35 (cloth), with postage billed at actual cost for mailing outside the U.S. Please inquire.
Send orders to Sidney Gottlieb, Editor, George Herbert Journal (spgottlieb@aol.com). Payment can be made by check (payable to: George Herbert Journal) sent to him at: Department of Communication, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06514 or via PayPal (spgottlieb@aol.com).
Catherine Freis, Richard Freis, Greg Miller, George Herbert: Memoriae matris sacrum. To the Memory of my Mother: A Consecrated Gift. A Critical Text, Translation, and Commentary. George Herbert Journal special studies and monographs. Fairfield, CT: George Herbert Journal, 2012. xxi, 199. $15.00 (paperback), $25 (cloth).
“This ‘Special Studies and Monographs’ double issue of the George Herbert Journal is very special indeed. At a time when a working knowledge of foreign languages in general, but particularly of Latin and Greek, is much diminished among students of early modern literature, it is difficult to conceive of a more valuable and rewarding publication in the field than this careful edition of the Latin and Greek poems that George Herbert wrote in commemoration of his mother, Magdalen, Lady Danvers. In addition to scrupulously establishing the original text, Catherine Freis, Richard Freis, and Greg Miller have provided every imaginable aid for the comprehension of this remarkable yet neglected work. Surely, a scholarly version of a primary source such as this is worth a dozen or more of the typical monographs that continue to roll off the university presses.”
R. V. YOUNG, John Donne Journal Vol. 32 (2013)
Memoriae matris sacrum is available at $15 (paperback) and $25 (cloth) for mailing within the U.S., with postage billed at actual cost for mailing outside the U.S. Please inquire.
Send orders to Sidney Gottlieb, Editor, George Herbert Journal (spgottlieb@aol.com). Payment can be made by check (payable to: George Herbert Journal) sent to him at: Department of Communication, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06514 or via PayPal (spgottlieb@aol.com).
“Greg Miller’s George Herbert’s ‘Holy Patterns’ treats various topics in George Herbert’s life, social networks, poetry, and other writings. The topics include Herbert’s Latin poems for his mother in Memoriae Matris Sacrum; the art and symbolism of the Herbert family tomb in St. Nicholas Church in Montgomery, Wales; the Williams manuscript of Herbert’s poetry and its connections to the Ferrar family’s circulation of coterie manuscripts; the religious themes of The Winding Sheet, a Little Gidding dialogue, and its affinity to Herbert’s mixture of providential and prudential thinking; the poet’s long and close relations with Francis Lord Bacon, and their similar concepts of truth, disinterestedness, and friendship; Herbert’s imaginative response to Judaism in his poetry; and the ‘poetics of unending conversion’ that preserves the individual poetic voice within the communal framework of the lyrics of The Temple.”
Jeffrey Powers-Beck, The George Herbert Journal, 2009